Definitions.- In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,-

1. (a) “Artificial recharge to Ground Water” means the process by which Ground Water reservoir is augmented at a rate exceeding that under natural conditions of replenishment;
2. (b) “Authority” means the Karnataka Groundwater Authority established under section 3;
3. (c) “Contravention” means defiance or violation of a rule, law or judicial order or a breach of a regulatory requirement or not fulfilling an obligation, promise or agreement;
4. (d) “Digging/drilling” means with all its grammatical variations and cognate expression in relation to a well includes digging, drilling or boring of new wells or in existing wells, deepening and modification (of radials and galleries) of existing wells for extraction of groundwater;
5. (e) “Drilling Agency” means a person or an agency or an organization or an institution engaged in the business of drilling or digging of well for exploration of water resources or extraction of water;
6. (f) “Defunct well” means open wells or bore wells that are no longer yielding water or not in use;
7. (g) “Failed bore wells” means a bore well yielding less than one liter per second (or 791 GPH) at the time of installation;
8. (h) “Government” means the State Government;
   • (i) “Groundwater” means the water, which exists below the ground surface in the zone of saturation and can be extracted through wells or any other means or emerges as springs and base flows in streams and rivers;
9. (j) “Inferior quality work” means the defects and faults occurred during the design stage that affect well maintenance; 1[(j-a) Implementing Agency” with all its grammatical variations and cognate expression in relation to a Government agency, public or private enterprise that undertakes drilling bore-wells or tube wells, maintenance and supply of water either directly or through contractors;]
10. (k) “Local Authority” means a City Municipal Corporation, Municipal Council, Town Panchayat, Zilla Panchayat, Taluk Panchayat, Grama Panchayat, Industrial Township Authority, Bangalore Development Authority, Improvement Board, Urban Development Authority, Planning Authority, Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board, Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Sewerage Board, constituted under any law for the time being in force;
11. (l) “Notified area” means the area notified under section 10;
12. (m) “Permit” means a permit granted under section 11;
13. (n) “Rain water harvesting” is the technique of collection and use of rainwater at surface or in sub-surface aquifer;
14. (o) “Registration” means a certificate of registration granted under section 12 and section 13;
15. (p) “User of groundwater” means any person or group of persons or an institution including a company or an establishment, whether the Government or not who or which extract or use or sell groundwater for any purpose including domestic use made either on a personal or community basis;
16. (q) “Well” means a structure constructed for the search or extraction of groundwater by a person or persons for drinking/domestic/industrial/commercial/agriculture use except by the authorized officials of the State Government or the Central Government for carrying out scientific investigation, exploration, development, augmentation, conservation, protection or management of groundwater and shall include open well, bore well, dug cum bore well, tube well, filter point, collection well, infiltration gallery, recharge well, disposal well or any of their combinations or variations;
17. (r) “Zone of saturation” means a subsurface zone in which all the pores or the material are filled with ground water under phreatic condition. CHAPTER –II CONSTITUTION OF THE AUTHORITY

¹ Inserted by Act 10 of 2025 w.e.f. 10.01.2025.